Worst customer service ever?
23am.com/flickr
I had a fantastic customer service experience today that is worth bragging about! That’s not often the case. BargainBabe had such terrible customer service at Babies R Us that she vowed never to shop there again. Ouch! Babies R Us is going to miss out on much of the $10,000 that a new parent spends in their first year (and on clothes, toys and books in subsequent years).
But onto my happy story. After extensive comparison shopping (involving calculators and family discussions) I decided on the perfect toilet paper for my family. I was so excited that I finally knew exactly what I wanted, where to find it, what coupons to collect and how to get the best deal on the TP that I wanted.
My big purchased day came – sale plus coupons – and I got my toilet paper in bulk. Unfortunately, when I opened the package I noticed that they had changed something and this lightly scented (almost unscented) product was now super scented. Yuck!
Now, here is the nice part of the story. I called customer service and the lady on the phone was very pleasant. I had everything that was needed to help her help me – the original packaging, where I bought the item, and the batch number. She apologized and told me that they really do take these comments into consideration and that I should call again if it continues to be a problem.
Then – and here comes the super-duper part – she said she was going to send me a prepaid Visa card to cover the cost of what I spent to buy the TP. That means that I can spend the money on anything that I want. I don’t even have to buy one of their products. (Of course, this company is so big, maybe they own Visa?)
So, the moral of the story – A successful company knows that keeping you, the consumer, happy is their key to success. So NEVER accept a bad product or bad service. A smart company wants to know what is wrong so that they can fix it. They also want to know what is right, so tell them that as well, so that they will keep the things that you like.
The lady I dealt with, and this is a reflection of her employer, clearly knows that the definition of “customer service” is to keep you, the customer, happy so that you want to continue to spend your hard-earned money on their products or services.
I’d love to hear about your happy customer service experiences.
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Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price. 
I’ve been very fortunate to have mostly good customer relations experiences, with the exception of AT&T, whose customer service is almost non-existent. One of my calls was answered by “Randy” (with a pronounced accent). He admitted he lived in India. I knew enough to ask to be transferred to an English speaking person in the United States. Things didn’t get much better from there on, as the English speaker in the U.S. didn’t even know for sure where Los Angeles was!!! DOH!!! I finally reached someone who was helpful, but had to waste a half hour to get results. I guess I was lucky it didn’t take longer, as I’ve heard horror stories about call of an hour or more! Bobbi’s comments about successful companies wanting to continue their success are right on the money! It also helps if you approach the problem with a positive, cooperative attitude. You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar!
@EllieD – I love your note that approaching customer service (or tech support) with a positive, cooperative attitude is very helpful. There have been times, in the past, where I just got so frustrated that I got angry or snide. It did NOT make things go better! So, keeping your smiling attitude and thanking the person for being there and helping you (even if it seems like they are NOT helping you) makes things go better. Getting angry or mad at them doesn’t help. If you feel that it is just not working with the person that you have on the phone, then you can politely end the conversation and call again. You will most likely get a new person and you can try again.